[Nexus 5 General] PhilipL:
Hi

I've been objectively comparing the display on the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 side by side and really question why we have 1080P screens on such small displays. Are we all so gullible we take in the marketing and believe more must be better?

Ignoring any arguments about better colors or contrast between the two phones, which have nothing to do with resolution, and that in my case the Nexus 4 looks little different from the Nexus 5 in color and contrast anyway, what about differences the extra resolution and slightly larger diagonal make?

Personally, I fail to see any differences in day to day use, even looking close up everything looks equal on both displays. Yes if I look very closely, closer than I would ever use the device in day to day use, I can just make out the pixel structure on the Nexus 4 where on the Nexus 5 I can't.

So what about the larger screen size? Well we get an extra 6mm approximately in height on the Nexus 5, the width is the same. This extra height has nothing to do with the greater resolution, but is caused by using non-square pixels on the Nexus 4. The aspect ratio of these displays should be 1.777 (1920/1080 or 1280/720 is 1.777). The Nexus 4 aspect ratio is 1.64, so was squashed vertically, the Nexus 5 is 1.78 so the correct aspect ratio. All they have done with the Nexus 5 is given it the correct aspect ratio, hence the extra 6mm in height and the resulting slightly larger diagonal. This could equally have been achieved using 1280x720.

Because we haven't really got a bigger display in the Nexus 5, just a correction of the aspect ratio (hence the width is the same on both), the screen doesn't really show any more information than the Nexus 4. As the display is now thinner compared to the Nexus 4 and due to the Nexus 5 setup, web pages with text will often wrap to the next line sooner than on the Nexus 4, so ironically with the Nexus 5 you may have less shown vertically than the Nexus 4. Sometimes other webpages will suit the taller Nexus 5 a bit better so you get a bit more in, overall though, it's swings and roundabouts.

What 1080P does provide is a faster draining battery as the back light needs to be more powerful to give the same visible brightness than a lower resolution display, and the graphics processor also needs to work much harder with all those extra pixels draining even more battery, that is never good in a phone. Wouldn't it be preferable for a 720P display that is less battery hungry and the R&D invested in better image quality rather than more pixels we can barely discern in such a small area?

So to sum up, what we have here in my opinion is just marketing. LCD phone panels are suffering the same marketing as mega pixels in cameras. Because the manufactures can provide LCD panels with ever growing pixel densities without too much extra cost, they are doing, as bigger numbers sell better and encourage us to replace perfectly good devices.

So for anyone considering the Nexus 5 to replace the Nexus 4 because they consider the larger screen will make the phone better to use for reading web pages etc, after all, the numbers of 1920x1080 compared to 1280x720 are compelling, in reality I'm not sure many people will notice a difference.

Regards

Phil